Home
by Taiyou no Yume
Summary: Home is where the heart lies. A group of friends who haven't seen each other in ten years soon discover that no matter how long you're apart, as long as you love someone, nothing really changes.


**Home**

It's been a long time since they'd been together like this. Ten years in fact. She can't really remember how they drifted apart. Only that they did.

"Anyone want a drink?" she pipes up cheerily, a little too cheerily, but she couldn't care less, she needed to break the awkward silence that hangs over them like a knife.

She wonders how they deteriorated to this state. Silence used to be a rarity among them, but now it was a torture. She hates it. They used to be able to talk about anything with each other. The four of them inseparable since the age of two. Fourteen years of friendship now laid crumbled at their feet.

Jack looks up from the window he had been staring out of, his blue eyes piercing hers. He was different now, more mature, more accepting of responsibility, but she still saw the mischievous teenager underneath it all.

She remembers the stolen kisses they used to share under the stairwell. The countless text messages, phone calls and light night rendezvous. They used to be in love, and now, they were no better off than strangers.

"Cinnamon het chocolate fur me, thanks lass," Merida pipes up, her accent as thick as ever.

She smiles, she is somewhat comforted over the fact that her once-upon-a-time-best-friend's favorite drink has not changed over the years.

She wished she could say the same about their relationship.

"Caramel frappe for me, please," Hiccup says with an easy grin.

Out of the four of them, she noticed, Hiccup had changed the most. His once small and scrawny physique had filled out nicely and he'd grown out his hair a little. He had grown taller too. He used to be shorter than her, but now he towered over her by a head. She had caught Merida looking at her ex-boyfriend in shock when they walked in.

Confidence that he had lacked in his pre and mid teen years now oozed out of him. It was almost scary to see how much he had changed.

"I'll follow you," Jack muttered, standing up to accompany her.

She wanted to scream no. She had offered to get the drinks to get _away_ from the awkwardness, not to have it follow her. But the words fail her so she just smiles tensely and nods.

They say nothing as they cue up for the drinks, Jack was staring intensely at her and she was…well looking anywhere but at her ex-boyfriend.

"I like your new hair," he pipes up suddenly, causing her to jolt in surprise.

It takes awhile for her to process what he is saying because she has had the same haircut for the past eight years, but then it dawns on her and she nervously laughs and she fluffs her short brown hair. It used to be long and blonde when he knew her.

"Yeah. It was such a hassle to have long hair, so one day I just lobbed the whole thing off," she laughs. It's too forced to seem real, even to her own ears.

Jack frowns, then, reaches out and touches a lock almost absentmindedly, "It looks nice either way," he says softly and she is too stunned to pull away.

"Thanks," she mutters, heat rushes to her cheeks as she gently steps a little further away.

They say nothing for the next few minutes. And she fiddles with her dress nervously.

When it is finally their turn to order the drinks, she is grateful for the break in silence as she rattles off her orders to the cashier and they each carry back two drinks in silence.

She notes how his beverage preference hasn't changed either; mint chocolate coffee ice blend.

They reach the table and pass around the drinks. There is the soft murmur of gratitude before their table is silent again. She idly wonders what they look like to people watching. Do they seem like people who had been best friends once upon a time? Or mere strangers forced to sit together due to a lack of tables?

"So…" Jack began, obviously as uncomfortable as she was, "What have you guys been up to?" he asks.

Merida is the first to reply, as usual. Her lips pulled up into a smirk, "A've bin travelling th' world. Ye guys actually caught me juist as ah wis aboot tae lea Burgress," she says with a lopsided grin as she sips her cocoa.

She hums, impressed. Merida had always said that she wanted to take a trip around the world. It was nice to see her living her dreams.

"Well, my life is hardly adventurous as yours," Hiccup says with a mock jealous look, causing a giggle to erupt from her. If felt nice to be laughing with them again.

"But I'm happy. And I've taken over my father's business," there was a short silence after that. They all knew what it meant.

"Oh Hiccup, I'm so sorry," she whispered, guilt washing over her. How had she missed Stoick's funeral?

"It's okay, it happened a long time ago," Hiccup shrugs and a fresh wave of guilt washes over them.

There is a few minutes of awkward silence before Hiccup smiled, "Putting aside the depressing mood," he drawls, "I'm engaged," he grins.

"That's great!" she squeals at the same time Merida says, "Who's the unlucky girl?" and Jack comments, "Never thought it was going to happen."

But her red haired friend's tone was light, and she could see her eyes sparkling with happiness at his engagement. And Jack was grinning like a fool.

Her smile freezes for a second. She remembered a time when she thought Merida and Hiccup would've been together for the rest of their lives. And her and Jack…

She let her thoughts trail away but her eyes flittered up to meet with a pair of ice blue ones. She immediately looks away and reaches down to twists the band on her finger that's no longer there.

Jack frowns at the gesture but Hiccup doesn't notice this and continues on, "Her name is Astrid Hofferson. She's amazing, and I can't believe how lucky I am," he rambles on, and she feels bad for not listening to everything but smiles when Merida interjects and playful bantering occurs on their part.

For a second, she doesn't see them sitting together at a table in Starbucks ten years older than the last time she had seen them. Instead, they are sixteen again. Young and wild and sixteen, huddled together at the back of a stairwell, laughing and telling jokes, Jack's arm casually slung around her small frame as she leans into him and Merida sitting next to Hiccup in front of them, arguing playfully with intertwined hands.

She is jolted out of her flashback, however, when Merida finally chooses to divert the topic.

"Wha' aboot ye, Frost?" the red head laughs, her eyes bright with happiness.

Jack's eyes flutter towards her for a second before he turns back to Merida, a lazy grin on his face, "Still single and running wild about the place," he jokes, "I took over North's shed a few years back, he's still around to help though," he adds when he sees their shocked faces.

She breathes a sigh of relief. North was Jack's adoptive father and she would be heartbroken if the kind hearted man had passed away without her knowing.

"What about you, Punz?" Jack directs towards her and she tenses up for a second. She hasn't hear that nickname for over ten years now. Melancholy fills her but she ignores it and instead smiles.

"I eloped with someone," she announces and laughs when she sees their jaws drop. Or at least she tries to laugh. She can't seem to. Painful memories replace the happy ones.

"His name was Eugene," she smiles sadly, she had known Eugene since she turned eighteen. It had taken awhile for them to fall in love but after that, they spent all their time together, "He's…he's not around anymore though," she adds softly.

There is an immediate somberness between them, and she starts to wonder why she brought it up in the first place. Maybe it felt good to confess it to someone.

Eugene had died almost a year ago already. They had run away together two years before that. She ran from her abusive aunt and him from the past that haunted him.

She had lost contact with all her previous friends when they ran away together, and they hadn't stayed in one place for too long for her to make new ones. At that time, it had been okay with her. She had the love of her life at her side and nothing else mattered. But when he had died, she had no one to talk to. It was the first time she had spoken of his death to someone since it had happened.

She feels someone clasp her hand from under the table and looks up to see Jack staring comfortingly down at her. She squeezes his hand gratefully and tries for a smile.

"It's okay though, he gave me a lifetime worth of memories and that's al that really matters."

_'It's the same with you guys,'_ she adds in her head.

It's silent for awhile before Merida raises her cup, "To Stoick and Eugene," she announces and they are stunned for awhile.

Finally, Jack smirks and raises his own drink, "To Stoick and Eugene," he echoes loudly.

Hiccup and her lock eye contact for awhile before they smile and raise their own glass, mirroring their friends actions and words. They then take a good swig out of their drinks.

Jack immediately tries to deflate the tension and change the subject by cracking a joke and Merida helps him. Before she knows it, she is laughing so hard her stomach cramps up, her fingers still interlaced with Jack's under the table.

After that, it doesn't matter that they hadn't seen each other for over ten years. True, they may have needed awhile to warm up to each other, but they held a bond that was stronger than anything.

She looks around their table and smiles. It's almost like nothing has changed at all. And for the first time in a year, she finds herself home again.

* * *

><p><strong>I'll admit, I was a bit reluctant to publish this, it didn't seem...good enough. But I'll give it a try anyways. Let me know what you think.<strong>


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